MyLife Home Care president, Robert Ebel, announced that MyLife has been selected as the only pediatric agency provider from the Midwest to participate in a two year national study conducted by Carolyn Foster, MD of the Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital. Funding for the study is a generous grant from the Lucille Packard Foundation for Children’s Health in California.

“We are delighted to be selected by the folks at Lurie to participate in a wide ranging study which is designed to assist families with at risk children with comprehensive medical needs” explained Ebel. “To that end I have asked Cathy Curtis, MyLife’s vice president, director of clinical pediatric services to join the panel in part because of her vast knowledge of the post acute care setting.”

The study will address a myriad of issues including the affordability, accessibility along with the availability of comprehensive nursing in the home setting. “ At this time the study is confidential but its safe to say that we will be drilling deeply into the socio-economic benefits of private duty nursing care in the pediatric home setting along with developing a base line for clinical out come measures for agencies across the country,” Ebel contended.

MyLife Home Care continues to lead the charge in Springfield and Washington in an effort to gain recognition that families and nursing agencies are at serious risk because of an acute nursing shortage due to both natural attrition– pending retirements of nurses– coupled with being shortchanged with reimbursement.

We would like to wish all Nurses a happy Nurses Week! Nursing is a proud profession and we are very proud of the MyLife Nursing family! Thanks to all of our Nurses who were able to make it to one of our Nurse Appreciation meals this week. It was a terrific time for our staff to get to know each other and for MyLife to show it’s appreciation.

MyLife recently partnered with Chamberlain College of Nursing in an effort to increase awareness and hands on education pertaining to the diverse opportunities in Home Health. MyLife provides both skilled hourly nursing and nursing visits– from pediatrics to seniors. The alliance provides Chamberlain student nurses going through their Community Nursing rotation a unique and valuable experience. Each student was paired with a MyLife community health or pediatric nurse providing assessments, patient teaching, case management, skilled care and treatment.

There is a critical shortage of nurses in healthcare today, particularly in home health, and is no more acutely felt than with providing staffing of private duty pediatric nurses. “It is inherently part of our mission to help increase the number of highly qualified nurses in this field,” explained Cathy Curtis, MyLife Director of Nursing. “We are hopeful that our alliance with Chamberlain College of Nursing will provide the catalyst and the requisite clinical experience necessary for nurses to fill those voids.”

This effort required a great deal of coordination to accommodate both our patients’ and our students’ schedules. We give thanks to our patients and their families and to our skilled nursing staff for taking on the role of educator and mentor for these students. In the current session, six students were able to complete their six week rotation . We look forward to watching these very capable and skilled students enter the field of nursing and welcome new students during the next rotation!

When Older Americans Month was established in 1963, only 17 million living Americans had reached their 65th birthday. About a third of those lived in poverty and there were few programs to meet there needs. Interest in older Americans and their concerns was growing. A meeting in April 1963 between President John F. Kennedy and members of the National Council of Senior Citizens led to designating May as Senior Citizens Month, the prelude to Older Americans Month.

Historically, Older Americans month has been a time to acknowledge the contributions of the past and current older persons in our country, in particular those who defended our country. Every president since Kennedy has issued a proclamation during and before the month of May asking that the entire nation pays tribute in some way to older persons in their communities. Older Americans Month is celebrated across the country through ceremonies, events, fairs and other activities.

Between 2012 and 2050, the United States will experience considerable growth in its older population growing from its current rate of 43.1 million Americans aged 65 an older to an estimated 83.7 million in 2050.

The aging of the population has wide ranging implications for the country from a policy standpoint. By “aging” demographers often mean the proportion of the population in the older age’s increases. As the United States continues to age, policy makers will be presented with challenges and programs such as Social Security and Medicare will no longer exist in their present form. It will also affect families, businesses and health care providers. We at MyLife encourage you to contact your representatives and demand that these programs stay fully funded.

We are happy to announce that MyLife is now CHAPs accredited! CHAPs is the Community Health Accreditation Program. CHAP is an independent, nonprofit, accrediting body for community-based health care organizations, which accredits nine programs and services. As the oldest national community-based accrediting body with more than 8,300 sites currently accredited, our purpose is to define and advance the highest quality of community-based care.

Through “deeming authority” granted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), CHAP has the regulatory authority to survey agencies providing home health, hospice and home medical equipment services to determine if they meet the Medicare Conditions of Participation and CMS Quality Standard.